Cloud computing is a ubiquitous tool by which virtual computing resources and services are provided to subscribers and other entities. Cloud computing can offer many advantages to a subscriber including relatively quick, efficient, and inexpensive upgradability and scalability of computing resources as the needs of the subscriber changes over time. In cloud computing, infrastructure, platform, and/or software may be provided by a cloud computing provider to the subscriber as a “service” over a network (i.e., over the “cloud”). For example, rather than having independent software packages loaded on each of the subscriber's computer devices, the software may be provided to the subscriber as a service accessible by any of the subscriber's computing devices using a web browser or associated lightweight application.
The online storage of data is an increasingly popular service being offered by many cloud computing providers (i.e., “cloud storage providers”). Such cloud storage providers typically allocate a certain amount of online data storage to which data (e.g., files, digital documents, digital photographs, digital music, system backups, virtual machine images, etc.) may be stored and later accessed. The amount of data storage available to a subscriber is typically based on a fee structure set by each cloud storage provider. Therefore, as the subscriber's storage needs grow, the amount of data storage available may be increased for an additional fee.
Each cloud storage provider typically manages one or more data centers, which facilitate storage and retrieval of data uploaded by a subscriber. To improve responsiveness and availability of the data uploaded by a subscriber, a cloud storage provider may replicate entire files or portions of files across multiple computing resources of the one or more data centers managed by that cloud storage provider. As a result, however, the data uploaded by the subscriber to one cloud storage provider is not typically accessible by the subscriber using another cloud storage provider.
Due to the increasing popularity of online storage services, many cloud storage providers exists. In selecting a particular cloud storage provider, a subscriber typically weighs a variety of factors associated with each cloud storage provider. For example, to control the costs of online storage, the subscriber may choose to subscribe to one cloud storage provider over another based on the fee structure set by each of the cloud storage providers. The subscriber may also choose to subscribe to one cloud storage provider over another based on the availability or performance of each of the cloud storage providers. Additionally, it is not uncommon for the subscriber to subscribe to multiple cloud storage providers based on one or more of those factors.